Since the launch of the globalinitiative on aid for trade in 2005, there has been aconcerted effort by donors, partner agencies, and recipientsto strengthen trade capacity and improve trade-relatedinfrastructure so that developing countries may reap thebenefits of trade. The majority of these efforts have beendriven by the public sector: building infrastructure,providing technical assistance, improving tradefacilitation, and trade policies. With a growing number ofcompanies looking to the developing world for new markets,the private sector has a profound interest in ensuring soundinvestments through access to trade-related infrastructure,an educated workforce, and quality standards for inputs totheir goods. The time is ripe to explore new partnershipsbetween the public and private sector in order to buildtrade capacity in developing countries. This paper is a steptowards highlighting the role of the private sector in theaid for trade initiative and provides a framework forunderstanding what this role entails. This framework isinformed by 40 case stories submitted by multinationalcompanies, business associations, and other private sectoractors, which cover a variety of trade related capacitybuilding projects. These case stories demonstrate theimportance of the private sector in building human andproductive capacity, incorporating producers into globalvalue chains, improving quality and safety standards, andpromoting trade facilitation. The paper concludes byhighlighting seven ways in which the private sector engageswith the aid for trade initiative and provides severalavenues for bolstering future collaboration between thepublic and private spheres.
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